Every Little Thing
by Beeka
Summary: After the summer holidays, Hermione and Draco are announced as Head Girl and Head Boy, and as each deals with their own traumatising memories from their holiday breaks, they find only each other to confide in about them. Chapters have been edited. WIP
1. Announcements

Every Little Thing

_#It's every little thing you do  
That makes me fall in love with you  
There isn't a way that I can show you  
Ever since I've come to know you#_

"Welcome back to those of you who have returned from a well deserved summer break, and welcome to those of you who are joining us for the first time this year. Now that all the first years have been sorted into their houses, we shall proceed by announcing the Head Boy and Girl for this year.

There were many seventh year students of whom we came upon great difficulty choosing just one boy and girl from. However, we have reached a final decision." Dumbledore announced to the excited assembly of students who sat in their four tables of Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.

Hermione squeezed her best friend's hands tightly under the table. She took a deep breath and gave a small smile as Harry and Ron wished her luck. She had worked so hard all her time at Hogwarts, now could be her time to be recognised of that. As Dumbledore started by announcing Head Girl first, Hermione held her breath and closed her eyes. She let out a sigh of disbelief as her name was called out in front of the entire school.

She stood up slowly, smiling to her two best friends as the rest of the Gryffindors cheered wildly and even the other houses (except for Slytherin, of course,) congratulated their new Head Girl. From across the room, Draco Malfoy watched in mixed emotions as the Gryffindor made her way up to the front to shake hands with the Headmaster and receive her badge. He watched her closely, taking notice of how she'd changed over the summer break.

She seemed to be taller and her hair appeared lighter, most probably due to the sun. It was also a lot thinner than when he last saw her- no longer was it bushy or frizzy, but sleek and coiled. The uniform for the seventh years also seemed to be doing her a lot of favours too; they no longer had to wear the strict set of robes and the plain simple uniform of shirt, tie and skirt or trousers, but they could choose what they wore, so long as it was black, white, grey or house colours and of a respectable fashion: i.e. no jeans or baggy clothes.

Hermione was wearing a white fitted blouse that showed of her curves, and a black skirt - just above the knee - showing of her long tanned legs...

"Draco! Draco, it's you!" Crabbe called to his friend, who sat staring into space.

"Huh?" He asked.

"You! You're Head Boy! Get up there!" Goyle replied.

What? Draco was Head Boy? And he's missed the look of horror on Potter's face because he was thinking a bout that filthy mudblood just because she was wearing a short skirt and tight blouse? Draco stood up rather abruptly, almost taking the people on either side of him with him. He strolled casually up to the front and shook hands with the muggle-loving Headmaster.

As he went to stand next to Hermione at the front, he noticed how happy she was. She stood smiling embarrassed and proudly at her friends and housemates. She turned to face him and gave him a small smile. Draco didn't smile back. He narrowed his eyes and gave her a scowl before he hissed quietly:

"What you looking at mudblood?" She wasn't going to get him to smile at her- she was nothing more than filth and scum. Okay, so they had just been picked to work together for a year, maybe he shouldn't have been quite so harsh, but he had to show her who's in charge.

As Dumbledore nodded for them to resume their places at their respective tables, Draco made the mistake of looking into her eyes. They were so full of happiness just moments before, but Draco had taken that all away. He ruined it, just like he ruined everything else in her life. As they went to their tables, Draco walked slightly in front, but Hermione soon overtook him but as she did, her shoulder brushed harshly against Draco's, causing a rush of mixed feelings to enter Draco once again. Everything just felt so different; she was different.

"Now that the formalities are over with, let the feast begin!" Dumbledore cast his wand over the hall and trays and plates filed up with an arrangement of delicious food.

Hermione and Draco sat down at their seats; their housemates cheering them once again. As Hermione took her place between Harry and Ron, they noticed the sparkle was gone from Hermione's face.

"What did Malfoy say to you?" Harry asked at last.

"Huh?" She asked, looking up for the first time since she sat down.

"Well we saw Malfoy whisper something to you and you haven't smiled since then, so we were wondering if you're okay." Ron added.

Hermione still seemed to not pay any attention so he asked her once more: "Hermione? Are you okay?"

"I heard you okay! Just leave it!" She suddenly blurted out,

"Well what did he say? We're just worried about you Hermione." Harry told her.

"He called me a filthy mudblood." She said quietly.

"Oh, is that all?" Ron replied, sounding relieved.

"What do you mean is that all?!" She cried.

"Well I just thought, I mean he calls you that all the time so you wouldn't be bothered by that anymore. That's all." Ron tried to explain.

"Well how would you like to be called the dirtiest name a witch can get everyday of your life, especially at the moment you're supposed to be most happy?" She yelled at him.

"No, I didn't mean-"

"Save it Ron. I get it. You agree with him don't you." She started.

"What!" Ron cried. "Hermione, you're talking crazy!" He told her.

"No, I get it now. I'm alright for you to copy homework off, but not your choice for Head Girl being that I'm not a 'proper' witch in your pure-blooded opinion. Well fine! Suits me!" Hermione shouted at her friend before standing up and running out of the hall, leaving her two best friends sitting astonished at the table.

"Now that's not what I meant." Ron said quietly.

From across the room, Draco had watched as Hermione had sat down and begun arguing with her friends. He had good hearing and was particularly skilled in lip reading. He had picked up the gist of the conversation. He seemed unable to prize his eyes away from her. He had never realised how his words could affect her so much. He always thought she was so strong. He only said those things to show his power over people. He actually thought he could agree with Ron on this point- he called her a mudblood so often he never thought it could affect her so much. When Hermione ran out of the hall, Draco stood up also and followed her out...

TBC

Top of Form


	2. Hidden memories

Chapter two

_#By the time you recognise this moment,  
This moment will be gone,  
But I will bend the light pretending,  
That it somehow lingered on#  
_  
As Draco left the feast, following out the newly appointed Head Girl, many heads turned to follow. This feast was partly in their honour for their new roles within the school, yet both of them had ran out within ten minutes of being appointed their roles of head students. When curious Slytherins (i.e. Pansy Parkinson) asked where their follow Slytherin was running of to, he just ignored them and concentrated only on following Hermione. He didn't know why but he had to find her. What he would say to her when he did catch her up he wasn't quite sure of, but he was sure he'd think of something.

He had escaped the stares of those seated in the Great Hall, including Potter and Weasley's venomous looks, and now he could hear the sound of Hermione's shoes running across the hard flagstone floor just ahead. He turned the corner into the Charms corridor to see Hermione about to turn down the next so he called out "Wait!" to her. She turned abruptly; obviously shocked to have found that anybody came after her, and even more shocked to find it was Draco Malfoy.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" She bitterly asked him once he had caught right up to her.

"I just wanted..." He started to say, then he came to a loss of words. What did he want? He wanted to apologise; to say he was sorry for everything he'd done to her, but that wasn't possible. He may not care what his father said or did anymore, but he did have a reputation to keep up. He just stood in front of Hermione... speechless.

"Well?" Hermione asked again impatiently, whilst wiping her face to check for any escaped tears.

Draco took a deep breath.

"I just wanted to make sure that-"

"What? That your words cut deep enough earlier? That you're the reason that I ran out? Well I hate to disappoint Malfoy, but sadly my world does not revolve around you and your petty words. I know that won't help your ego so much, but as your sad little cronies aren't around I don't suppose it'll bother you too much." She cut in to what Draco was saying and spoke in an astringent tone.

"No. I actually wanted to say, well it's just...ok, I just wanted to tell you that I actually didn't mean to hurt you with what I said." He gently told her, after searching for the words to tell her and avoiding her eyes.

Hermione had never heard him talk like this. He was always so cold and sarcastic, like earlier. Now he was, well, normal. At least by an average person's standards he was 'normal'. For Draco Malfoy, this certainly was not normal. Sorrow and guilt weren't exactly the traits he was known for.

They had both been silent for some moments, yet neither dared to speak and ruin this civil-ness that had set into the atmosphere. Draco gradually lifted his head to meet Hermione's gaze. Slowly, he turned to walk away. Obviously she didn't want to be near him right now. Why would she? He'd made her life hell for six years. Why should she believe he was sorry now? As he started to walk away, she watched, and then called him back.

"Draco, wait." He stopped in his tracks at the sound of his first name being called from her mouth.

Nobody ever dared call him that. He turned again to face Hermione.

"Why did you call me that?" He asked her bluntly. He was a little out of balance from the shock. She'd always called him Malfoy before, and he'd always called her Granger- that was the way it was; just one of the rules. But then he'd just broken one of the rules too, by speaking to her like a human being and not like a piece of muck on his expensive Armani clothes.

"Why did you come to check I was okay?" She asked straight back. 'Good point' thought Draco and moved on. Why was it okay for him to break the rules and yet not her?  
"Truthfully though, why did you come after me?" Hermione asked him curiously. "Why today did you decide that it's wrong for you to call me that dirty name?"

She looked deep into Draco's eyes, searching for the answer. He was a mystery to her. His steely grey eyes told no secrets and gave no clues to the answer he gave.

"Because I realised some things over the summer holiday; I found things out that I never knew before...or never wanted to know before." He added quietly at the end of his mysterious reply.

"I don't understand, what happened? What could have made you realise what you had been doing was wrong?" She asked him, confused.

"Does it matter?" He asked.

"Well it does to me. I mean, you call me names for six years, six years , and then we have two months off and you come back a new man! But...wait. This morning; when we were announced as Head Boy and Girl- you called me a mudblood then. How, if you realised these things over the summer, did you call me one this morning just the same as always. What's changed in the last twenty minutes?"

"We've become the Head pupils. We're going to have to work closely for the next year. Do you really want that to happen whilst we're at each other's throats all day?"  
Hermione could tell that wasn't the reason for Draco's drastic change in character; for one, it didn't fit with the explanation he gave her a minute ago about realising things over the summer. However, she didn't want to spoil the peace they'd found by digging it up any further, so she decided to let it lie (which was difficult for Hermione as she had a very curious nature). Draco also wanted to move on, so he changed the subject:

"So anyway," He said, "what's happened to you and lover boy? By the way you were laying into Weasley this evening at the feast, would I be right in assuming that you and he are no longer shagging each other?" Draco asked Hermione the question the rest of the school were dying to know the answer to. Be fore they'd broken up for the summer, Ron and Hermione had been inseparable; Draco felt too sick to eat at meal times when he had to se them two snogging at the table opposite.

"We were never "shagging", as you so politely put it, but yes you're right- we are no longer 'together'." She replied. She'd tried to go back to normal with Ron when she saw him this morning at platform nine and three quarters, but just thinking about what he'd done made her so angry. As each minute crept past, she slowly began to think about everything that he'd done and by the time she'd reached the table again after being announced as Head Girl, she couldn't take it and so had lost her temper with him for the pettiest reason. She had felt guilty at first, but then she thought 'Well he deserved it. After everything he's done he deserves everything he gets.'

Draco looked at Hermione questioningly. He obviously expected an explanation as to why the most loved up couple of Hogwarts last year were no longer 'together' as Hermione had put it, but Hermione never gave him an answer, and as she had not pressed him for the real explanation for his change in attitude, he decided it only fair he return the favour. To be honest, it wasn't that he didn't want her to know the real explanation; she was the one person who deserved it the most, but it was just that the explanation was so horrific in Draco's mind that he didn't think he could get through telling the whole story. 'Maybe one day', he thought.

Hermione was also glad she didn't have to elaborate her reply to his question, as she would have felt most strange explaining to Draco Malfoy why Ron and her had broken up. The heart-wrenching moment was still imprinted in her mind and she didn't care to repeat it aloud.

They'd both been silent for a long minute after both of them, being reminded of their summer ordeals, stood pondering over their memories from the last two months. Eventually the silence was broken.

"Well I guess I'd better be getting back" Draco said.

"Yeah, me too. I mean, the feast is partly in our honour after all. And Harry and Ron will be worried, I'm sure." Hermione replied, although she knew her 'friends' couldn't be too worried about her, else they'd have come after her...like Draco had.

"Of course." Draco said, with a reminder of how different them two were, and how separate their lives were. So maybe he and Hermione could hold a conversation now, but Potter would never accept that, or the new Draco. Not that Draco wanted to be 'mates' with a pansy like Potter, but he knew Hermione would back down from their truce if she knew Harry wasn't behind her at least part of the way.

They both turned and walked back down the corridor at a pace much slower than that of when they had come from the other direction. When they came to a junction in their path, Hermione stopped.

"What is it?" Draco enquired.

"I just thought, maybe we should go check the notice board outside the prefect's lounge: it should have the time for our first meeting as Head Boy and Girl. We should be prepared as we are in charge of them now. So, shall we go look quickly before going to the hall?" Hermione said, with her usual tone of voice back in place.

"Sure." Draco replied.

They turned right down the corridor and walked a few metres to the door leading into the prefects meeting point and lounge, and Head pupils headquarters. On the wall next to the door was a neat piece of parchment, which listed all the meeting dates and times for the month of September in Dumbledore's neat handwriting. They discovered their first meeting was on the following evening, but there was a notice instructing Hermione and Draco to visit Dumbledore some time before the meeting to discuss their new positions.

"When do you think we should we go to Dumbledore then?" Draco asked Hermione after they had both read the notice.

"Well we could either go this evening when the feast's over, or tomorrow morning. What do you think?" Hermione replied.

"I vote tomorrow. It's been a long day and I can't be doing with spending my first evening back with that blithering old fool." Draco answered, reverting to his old self when referring to professor Dumbledore. He noticed Hermione didn't look impressed with his comment about the head teacher so he muttered "sorry" quietly. "Right then, shall we go to the feast now?" Draco said, and the pair continued back to the Great Hall.

When they reached the large wooden doors that they had exited through so quickly earlier that evening, Hermione paused again as Draco went to open the door for her. He noticed she was biting her bottom lip worriedly.

"What is it?" He asked her.

"Nothing. Well, it's just; I don't think I can go back in there and face everyone tonight again after me running out so stupidly earlier. I might just go on up to the Gryffindor tower and get an early night's sleep." She told him, but in truth it was only Ron she couldn't stand to see.

"It's only nine o'clock." Draco told her. He'd never heard of anyone going to bed so early! Midnight was early for him.

"I know, but I was awake all of last night- I couldn't wait to be back at Hogwarts," she began. 'I know the feeling' Draco thought to himself. "and it has been a long day so I'm really tired and I want to have a clear head for the meeting tomorrow." She continued.

"Okay then." Draco replied.

Hermione turned around and started up the staircase that led to her common room. Draco followed behind, unsure why. Hermione heard Draco's footsteps behind hers and slowed so that she and Draco were walking alongside up the stairs.

"What're you doing?" She asked him.

"I could hardly be called a gentleman if I didn't walk a lady to her room on this dark night, could I?"

Draco had just called Hermione a lady. Now his behaviour was starting to worry her!

"I suppose not." She replied with a slight smile.

When they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady (who was currently sleeping), Hermione stopped and turned to face Draco.

"Thank you, Draco." Hermione said seriously.

"Well I couldn't let you wander the castle alone at night." He said with a smile.

"No, I meant thank you for... well for everything this evening." She told him as she looked into his eyes.

"No problem." He replied as her eyes searched into his; the joking smile of his gone, and replaced with and understanding face. "I meant it, you know: I'm sorry." He told her as their eyes continued to connect.

"I know." She whispered in reply as they leant towards each other; their mouths meeting with each other's, and their eyes closed.

TBC


	3. Finding ways

Chapter Three 

_  
#Things aren't always as they seem,_

_So why still swim in the depths of a tide,_

_That's pulling you in,_

_Makes you think your life has been,_

_A waste of time#_

Hermione and Draco stood kissing outside the Gryffindor Tower. They eventually realised what was happening after minutes of their lips meeting. They both pulled away and stepped back.

"Right, well, err, thanks again for walking me up." Hermione said trying to ignore the fact that seconds earlier she had been kissing her former worst enemy. Draco cleared his throat.

"That's, um, okay. So, I guess I'd better be going then." He managed to reply as he started to head towards the stairs.

"Oh, what time shall we go to Dumbledore tomorrow?" Hermione asked, remembering their meeting.

"It's up to you. I don't mind." Draco replied.

"Okay, well say ten a.m. then? Shall we meet at the bottom of the staircase, by the statue before Dumbledore's office? That way we won't have to disturb him twice by entering separately." She answered in her organised way.

"Yeah, that's great. No problem. I'll se you then, then."

Hermione smiled in response, then Draco headed back down to the feast. Hermione just stood on the spot for several minutes in thought until somebody talking disturbed her.

"Are you going to stand there all night or have you got the password? You're making the place look untidy!" The Fat Lady from the portrait asked Hermione, now she was awake.

"The password! Oh My Gosh! I don't have it! They always give out the passwords at the end of the feast! I totally forgot about it!" Hermione cried as she realised she was locked out.

"Sorry dear, but you know the rules: no password, no entrance." The Fat Lady told Hermione.

"Look, couldn't you make an exception- just this once? Please? I can't go back in the hall and I'll be out here until nearly midnight if I have to wait for everyone else to come back!" Hermione pleaded. " It's not like you don't know who I am. And I'm Head Girl after all."

"Oh, well fine! But don't mention this to Dumbledore else they'll have me replaced!" She warned Hermione as she backed down. Then, she quickly checked the corridor for anybody coming, and then slid the portrait across to reveal the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower.

"Thank you!" Hermione gratefully told the Fat Lady, and then went on through to the cosy common room.

Hermione looked around the room that she hadn't been in for two months and smiled. She had dreaded coming back to school after everything that happened with Ron over the summer, and she had been so worried about the Head Girl announcement: she had really wanted the place, but she genuinely didn't think she would get it. Now she was here though, things hadn't turned out quite as badly as she'd expected them to, in the end.

She realised she'd been stood in a trance again for several minutes, and carried on up to her dorm. The House Elves had brought everyone's cases up to their rooms for them, so Hermione began to slowly unpack.

She'd unpacked half her cases when she realised it must be nearly time for everyone to leave the feast, so she got changed into her pyjamas and climbed into bed. She wanted to be asleep before the others got there and started asking awkward questions. She pulled the drapes across to surround her four-poster bed and lay in the dark.

She couldn't sleep. How was she supposed to after the events that had occurred that evening? Draco certainly was a mystery to her. She still couldn't understand how he could change so drastically, but she was glad for the change either way.

'Well I'm only glad because we're both head pupils now and we would have had to learn to get along eventually.' The logistical part of her brain told her. But that didn't explain the kiss that happened so inadvertently. 'It was just a kiss, it doesn't mean anything,' she told herself, 'It just happened in the moment.' but that didn't explain why she wished it had lasted just a little longer, or why she kept seeing his face every time she closed her eyes.

At around eleven-thirty she heard voices enter the common room downstairs, and they got consistently louder as they approached the dorm. Lavender Brown, Lucy Jones, Parvati Patil and Ellen Worsen entered the seventh year girl's dormitory talking excitedly about their summer.

"Hermione? Are you awake?" Lucy asked her, but Hermione pretended to be asleep. "Because Harry and Ron want to se you downstairs to talk or something. You awake?"

"I think she's sleeping, Lucy." Parvati pointed out when Lucy got no reply.  
"Oh. Alright then." She replied dumbly.

The girls got changed and then climbed into their own four-poster beds and left the room in the silence that Hermione found it in hours earlier, except for the gentle breathing of her fellow housemates as they fell asleep into happy dreams. In the silence, Hermione was able to think about everything that had happened that day and tried to make sense of it all. Eventually she must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew, the sun was just beginning to peek out from the horizon outside the window, and her bedside clock said five-fifty a.m.

She tried for another half an hour to get some more sleep, but when that failed, she grabbed a book out of her trunk and quietly headed down to the deserted common room. She sat and read for an hour, and then she must have nodded off for an hour and a half again, because when she woke there several people in the common room with her and her dainty wristwatch said nine-twenty. Luckily, as it was their first proper day back, the students were given the day off timetable to unpack and settle in again. However, Hermione now only had half an hour to get showered and dressed in time for the meeting with Dumbledore.

She ran down to Dumbledore's office to find Draco leaning casually against the stone statue. He peered at his wrist to check the time, then at Hermione who was breathing heavily after having just ran down three flights of stairs and back up a different set.

"Took your time didn't you? I thought you said ten?" He asked her coolly, as if none of the previous day's occurrences had happened.

"I did. It's only like a minute past ten anyway." She replied, annoyed, as she caught her breath.

"Actually, its four minutes past." He corrected her.

"Whatever." She replied, frustrated. " Well shall we go in then?" She asked, indicating to go up to Dumbledore's office and avoiding mentioning their inadvertent kiss the previous night and fighting the temptation to kiss him again.

"After you." Draco said, "ladies first", he beckoned for Hermione to step forward and she showed her Head Girl badge to the gargoyle guarding the stairs up to the office. The gargoyle's eyes scanned the badge and flashed red as it registered the authority. Stone steps were revealed as it then slid across to let them pass.

Draco followed Hermione up the stairs to their Headmaster's office. From behind her, he smirked as he recalled how she had leaned in to kiss him last night. When he had gone back down to the feast, he entered the hall as he ever would, but inside he felt unusually happy. It wasn't necessarily the fact that they had kissed that filled Draco with gladness; it was more the fact that he had cleared the air with Hermione.

He had left the hall earlier that evening with the intention of apologising to Hermione, and he had returned with that accomplished. What he had discovered that summer had changed him in his every feeling for Hermione, and though his summer torments had been such terrible experiences for him, he was, in a way, grateful, because it meant he looked upon Hermione with such a different attitude. He had failed to tell her what had happened to him, but now, as he followed her up to Dumbledore's office, he knew he would tell her eventually.

Draco was brought out of his deep thoughts when they arrived at the top of the staircase and stood in front of a large oak door. Hermione knocked.

"Enter." Dumbledore replied from the large office.

After the successful meeting with the Headmaster, in which Hermione and Draco both learned of their duties and responsibilities as Head pupils, they left Dumbledore's office and paused at the bottom of the spiralling staircase.

"Well, I guess I'll se you later then." Hermione said.

"Yeah, I guess so." Draco replied, mirroring her own friendly, yet nervous tone.

Just as Hermione turned to leave and head back up to her common room, Draco spoke again, stopping her in her tracks.

"About last night," He started. Hermione turned to face him again, having wondered how long it would be before it was mentioned.

"It was a mistake- a heat of the moment thing. Let's just forget it ever happened, yeah?" She interrupted him before he could speak again. In truth, she was afraid of what he might say because inside, though she had resentfully enjoyed the sweet taste of his lips, she wouldn't be able to bare hearing Draco say it was a mistake, so had said it herself first. At least then she wouldn't have to stand through Draco's pungent words of regret, which she was almost positive she was about to hear. She turned and left then, before Draco could even reply to her comments.

Draco was left standing alone in the deserted corridor, reminiscing on their "mistake" form the previous evening, as Hermione had referred to it, and asking himself how something that had felt so right, could possibly be a mistake.

Later that day, Hermione was on her own heading to the library when she passed Draco standing with Crabbe, Blaise and Goyle. Draco and she exchanged looks, not really sure how to communicate with each other while others were present, and both feeling awkward after their conversation earlier that day.

"What you looking' at, Mudblood?" Goyle practically spat at Hermione as she passed them. "What you starin' at Malfoy for, you got some kind of problem? Mud in your eyes perhaps?" He continued, laughing as he spoke. And right on cue, Draco bitterly laughed along with Crabbe and Blaise. Hermione's face fell as it had done in the same way the previous evening when Draco had called her that name, and she searched in Draco's eyes for some sort of explanation for his behaviour, but she found none and continued to the library feeling a lot different to how she had when she'd seen Draco last.

Ten minutes later, Draco was still feeling guilty and confused about Hermione and so excused himself from his 'friends' and headed to the library where he knew he would find the Head Girl.

"What do you want?" Hermione asked Draco as he approached her in the deserted library.

"To say I'm sorry." He muttered. He wasn't used to apologising, and this being the second time in two days, it was hard for Draco to say aloud.

"Well I don't want your apologies. I just want you to tell me what's going on. Why all the personality transplants?" Hermione replied.

"I'm sorry, it's just that, well what was I supposed to do?" Draco argued.

"I don't know." She started, with a hint of sarcasm I her tone. "Urm, perhaps not laugh when one of your cronies calls me a Mudblood?" She suggested, annoyed at Draco for making out he was the innocent party.

"Sorry, but that's what I'd normally do. Otherwise I'd get a load of shit from them for weeks. And it's not like I said it anyway!" Draco protested.

"I know, but it's still the principle! You're Head Boy, Draco, and you're still laughing at pathetic name-calling. Maybe you could have explained yourself to them by merely saying you're not an immature first year anymore!" Hermione started. Draco stood looking at this beautiful woman that stood in front of him, rambling incessantly on about points Draco had got lost in minutes ago. "...I mean, they look up to you Draco. If you didn't laugh then they'd realise they were pathetic and stop. They respect you, Merlin knows why, and-" Hermione continued, before she was cut off by Draco putting his hands on her waist and pulling her closer before their lips met for a second time. This time the kiss lasted for a little longer than before, with a little more passion than their inadvertent kiss from the previous evening.

After, Hermione just stared at Draco in shock, lost for words.

"You do ramble on you know." He said simply when they separated their lips form each other's. "At least now I know how to shut you up." He smiled at her, and she couldn't help but not be angry with him.

"Well I do talk a lot you know. Therefore, you should probably get your practice in at shutting me up. What do you think?" She grinned as she pulled him into her this time, and they kissed again.

TBC


End file.
